US to EU: Don’t scapegoat Safe Harbor over NSA

US regulators are urging their European Union counterparts to preserve a more than decade-old data transfer agreement amid mounting European anger over National Security Agency spying. An important but little-known mechanism, the Safe Harbor Framework, lets more than 3,000 companies, including Google and Facebook, process data from European citizens without running afoul of the region’s privacy laws.

It has emerged as a friction point between the United States and European Union as European officials move to tighten their data protection rules -- an effort that has intensified in the wake of revelations about NSA surveillance. Some EU officials, alarmed by reports of the NSA’s work with Internet companies, say Safe Harbor gives U.S. tech firms a way to skirt their more stringent privacy regime. US officials, however, maintain that the Safe Harbor agreement is well-enforced and represents the best way to protect privacy across transatlantic data flows that serve millions of consumers. Compared with alternatives, the mechanism “provides more, not less, privacy protection,” argued Commissioner Julie Brill of the Federal Trade Commission.